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Not been on a lot due to having to alternate between computers a fair bit recently, limiting my Steam time. Should be on a fair bit next week

Playing Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom at the moment. I'm no where near as impressed as I thought I would be. The whole "guiding around a big, stupid, dependant creature" thing isn't anywhere nearly as well done as I'd have hoped. I have a feeling Team Ico's effort, The Last Guardian (due out next year), will be far more accomplished than MatFK, but not owning a PS3, I'll never know for sure

As it is, I've gone back to Nier, and will come back to Majin when that's done. It's amazing how going in with different expectations can alter your view on a game.

How far have you played the singleplayer campaign of frozen synapse? I just completed a mission where I had to hold out with 2 rocket launchers against more than half a dozen vats with shotgun. This is madness! Does it go on like this? I guess at some point I'll have to fend off 100 elite shocktroopers with no more than one cross-eyed hobbit in a wheelchair armed with a slingshot.

Lol, no, I was finding it to0 easy and not as satisfying as the multi-player (I like how, in the multi-player, the most common type of match is Dark Elimination, which isn't really possible against the AI). Might have to carry on though, I'm only about a quarter of the way through the single player, but that sounds like lots of fun!

Metro 2033
I felt like being back in 1993 somehow. Needed to get drivers reinstalled, copy some files here and there and do other arcane stuff to get the game running. It still crashes immediately if I try to start it via steam. After one full hour it finally worked.

As soon as I actually played some signficant part I will give an update
I just played past the tutorial stages and so far it seems pretty good.

You've played Heavy Rain, right? What do you think of Farenheit, in comparison? I loved Farenheit, but *hated* the story, almost ruined the game for me, and certainly ensured it wasn't the classic it could have been in my eyes.

You've played Heavy Rain, right? What do you think of Farenheit, in comparison? I loved Farenheit, but *hated* the story, almost ruined the game for me, and certainly ensured it wasn't the classic it could have been in my eyes.

I find the characters in Fahrneheit ALOT more sympathetic and interesting than those in Heavy Rain, and I liked the score better. I like the feeling of the temperature dropping. Frozen NYC is a venue that works for me.

I think since Fahrenheit never comes off as anything other than a 'B' game, I'm alot more forgiving towards it. Yes, I thought the story got way over the top, but I didnt have a problem with that. Its a videogame adventure about the end of the world... my expectation was that it would go to another world or someplace crazy by the end.

By comparison I thought Heavy Rain's story was so limited in scope, and one note in the emotions it was trying to convey (sacrifice), it had nowhere interesting to go by the end. Ethan rescues his son.. game ends. His sacrifices are painful, and that made me feel more like a voyeur, than a player.

On an old school brawler kick right now - playing through X-Men Arcade (360) and Turtles in Time: Reshelled (360). Both are currently on sale, so the price was right for purchase. Good, mindless fun, though I'm a little torn on the graphical update on Reshelled.

Also, still playing through Red Dead Redemption, mostly focusing on multiplayer now.

As always, anyone wants to partake in any Live multiplayer goodness, just drop me a line.

Started playing Crysis 2, partly because I liked the first Crysis, partly because the new DX11 patch and high-res textures for the PC version came out.

I'm now a couple of hours in. While Crysis 2 is undeniably pretty and the graphics on ultra-settings show where the next console generation will be, the game itself is a bit meh. What I really liked about Crysis 1 and indeed Warhead was the relative freedom to play a Predator from the movie of the same name. It still works in principle, but the stealth mechanics don't work very well in Crysis 2. The reason for this seem to be the mystical powers of stairs. I had a couple of occasions where I was sitting in cover, decloaking so that the energy of my suit could replenish, just to be spotted and fired at through concrete walls. I found out that this seems to be happening more often if an AI guard looking for me is standing on a flight of stairs.

But the power of stairs don't end there: I was firing at an explosive barrel next to two guys coming down a set of stairs and while they were engulfed in flames and shrapnel, they emerged said flames and shrapnel unscathed. Thanks to the powers of stairs they could indeed fire at me through the wall I was hiding behind. The only way to get them to loose me was to hit E for cloaking and run zig-zag like a rabbit chased by a bunch of wolves.

I can go on about how Crysis 2 makes one step forward to jump two back by noticing how awful the scripted events are at times. The game takes control away from the player multiple times. One particularly maddening occasion was relatively short after starting the game, where I spotted some evil dude chatting with a woman in front of a helicopter. Well, as far as I know that dude is at least in part responsible for the misery I'm in so I as a player would really like to shoot that guy. It's not that this would be so difficult: I am sitting at the perfect vantage point for sniping him and have a rifle with scope ready. But thanks to the scripting I can't do anything. I have to sit there and listen to his conversation with that women while I would rather plant some bullets in his face to refurnish his denture. Then he sits in the helicopter for some more seconds, in plain sight, before taking off after which I'm finally allowed to move again.

At another occasion I destroyed some computer in order to prevent evil soldiers from accessing the data. The voice in my ear tells me to get out of there. "Easy" I think, remembering seeing an emergency exit just the other room so I run back, kill 2 goons along the way and stand in front of the emergency exit, unable to open it. Then I realized that I wasn't able to open any normal looking door so far and this was not an exception. To tease me the door said "emergency exit, push handle to open", but no movement, pushing or punching on my part achieved anything. Then a helicopter shows up that I have to shoot down so that another scripted event can take place which enables me to proceed further. WHY CAN'T I JUST OPEN THE DOOR?!?

Started playing Demons Souls last week. 3 out of 4 hours wasted, doing things i presumable should not even dare to try with my level and my equipment and my not knowing how to do it right.
I don't hate it so far but it's really a game that don't follows the golden rule of easy to learn and hard to master. It just jumps to the second part without bothering a second in giving hints how to learn how to play it and if i would not be a so stubborn person i would have ejected it forever.
Actually the difficulty seems pretty low, at least very doable, the hardest part is repeating over and over things i already mastered before, but those spikes that dart out of nowhere is like Bayonetta Climax mode invades boosted with some anabolics and instantly dieing is something i have to live.. err.. die with.

@crackajack: looks like you rushed headfirst into the jaws of death and died. Good. Boletaria is a dangerous place and carelessness gets you killed faster than anything else. On my first playthrough I've beaten most of the bosses on the first try. Quite a few of them are not really in a hurry to kill you, thus it's possible to come of with strategies on the go. Exceptions being the Tower Knight, Flamelurker and Maneater who slammed me into the ground more often than I care to count. I really hate Maneater.

@Topic: being a bit fed up with Crysis 2 I put it on indefinite hold and started Assassins Creed 2 instead. I have a soft spot for the first AC despite the game being seriously flawed. So far I really enjoy running over rooftops in the second part and it doesn't seem to make the same mistakes the first game did. However: the opening scene fleeing the lab was pretty boring. I wouldn't have minded seeing this handled in a cutscene.

@crackajack: looks like you rushed headfirst into the jaws of death and died. Good.

Being occasionally roasted by the dragon is odd, but ok with me since the intro showed their king of the ring presence and so i got a proper warning to stay away from them.
But the first enemy that had beaten me more than once was that red eye knight that regenerates health all the time. Had him almost killed once but figthing a single not really impressive enemy for about 10 minutes can't be the plan of the game?
Given up to go that way with my current level.

Mother Blob took some time to get all those little minions killed but was easy.

Next place to die more than once, actually more than a dozen times was the tower knight, respectively the 5 enemies at the end of the running sequence with the dragon and being pissed by the way to get there. Clicking R3 while having an enemy in plain sight (the guy who waits in a corner to backstab me) but no reaction is enraging me.
Running away of the hot breath of the dragon before the tower knight, so having no stamina, switch to the awkward lock-on system and heavy hitting quite often not the enemy but despite him the object beside him. WTF That's enraging me.

And the tower knight himself is really imba to the max. I go through the fog. I just see a giant black whatever, realize some arrows hitting my shield. whoosh. Almost dead. Hu? I better get away. whoosh. Dead. WTF! Try to get my souls back with the plan to immediately turn around. But going right back seemed impossible. The fog is a one way road? WTF! Ok, now i want to beat that guy. But my character moves so slowly it's impossible to react to anything he does. I am dead before i'm even in the range of being able to attack him.

I chose the temple knight. Heavy armor melee type. My type of gameplay in such games. He seems to have too much heavy armor which result in no breath after each single strike (although ultrafast regeneration which appear me like nonsense 2 times... a more sluggish stamina system like in Fight Night would be much better) but on the other side his armor doesn't protect him at all against hits? WTF! I can't move fast, i can't take hard hits. I just have a shiny clothing. Where's the usual role playing logic?

Two atmosphere killers:
Worst use of havoc physics in a long time. When all dead enemies hop weightless around all the time when they are slightly touched it's really bizarre.
The online-system with 2 of 3 messages being sort of spam bullshit. I have not even experienced any soul invasion incidence but i am tempted to log off PSN just to remove the online additions.

But the first enemy that had beaten me more than once was that red eye knight that regenerates health all the time. Had him almost killed once but figthing a single not really impressive enemy for about 10 minutes can't be the plan of the game?

That knight guards a chamber that you won't get access to until very late of the game. The red knight is a portent of things to come, not an enemy you should take on before beating your first archdemon.

You can get rid of the red dragon with a bow and about 150 to 200 arrows (depending on how good you hit) when shooting at him every time he strafes by the first tower from where the archers were sitting. That makes approaching the tower knight much easier. Getting rid of the red dragon is pretty boring though. On my second playthrough I was reading a newspaper while finishing him.

I also don't use the lock-on function all too much. Only when dealing with a single enemy or when trying to backstab someone.

The tower knight is easy in theory. Sprint past him to take out the archers first. His weak spots are his heels and head. Weapons with slashing damage work best against him. That said: I had it a couple of times that he fell on me when I tried to kill him, smashing me in the process

It is important to strike quickly, so take a faster weapon (see below). I beat him with a knight in full armor using a longsword, so it's not necessary to take your armor off or something.

Quote:

Originally Posted by crackajack

I chose the temple knight. Heavy armor melee type. My type of gameplay in such games. He seems to have too much heavy armor which result in no breath after each single strike

Try another weapon, for example a one handed sword. Then you don't run out of energy that quickly. The polearm which is the temple knight starting weapon does nice damage against large groups, but is too slow and unwieldy for many areas of the game. In the first level there should be a scimitar lying around somewhere, try that one. I played through most of the game with longsword (very versatile weapon) and longbow. Only at specific enemies I switched to the meat cleaver.

As a general rule you have to adapt to the enemies. If your weapon and armor are not up to the task change them

I like the dragon, although i usually dislike such stretched wait, wait, wait... RUN passages in other games. It's sort of the only thing so far that really gives the world character where the weird Nexus, Boletaria in fog, 5 stones, i can trade souls with you whatever blabla seems like total nonsense so far. Actually would be fun to ride that beast.
I guess that's not possible?

Quote:

The tower knight is easy in theory.

If i would have the time to get to a safe spot to analyze his actions before i die, then yes.

Quote:

Try another weapon, for example a one handed sword. Then you don't run out of energy that quickly.

I already use a dagger(?) for the wolves and a (rather long range) spear (?) for the two guarding knights outside. Slightly better/ faster than with the original Halberd, which is already broken or whatever. But the character is still totally exhausted faster than my real me would be.
Is my demon slayer character a demon slayer or did they through a fat lazy bum into the world?
That exhaustion system drives me really nuts. It's never ever realistic and it's not fun.

Quote:

As a general rule you have to adapt to the enemies. If your weapon and armor are not up to the task change them

The general rule of RPGs is normally to play a role. A dude with armor equipped, and not some leather nothing, is normally acting like a tank on the front line?!?
A good game allows different playstyles. When i choose a knight it should be possible to act like a knight, not shift to archer, thief, magician all the time.
Morrowind allowed a nonsense mischmasch character. So here its the same?
I'm not even a fan of RPGs but it seems like as soon as great customization is available it is not only possible but necessary that the actually chosen role has to be blurred to an unrecognizable condition.

It's probably no surprise that I disagree with almost everything you say

Quote:

Originally Posted by crackajack

Actually would be fun to ride that beast.
I guess that's not possible?

It is. But only as part of the dragon's lunchbox.

Quote:

Originally Posted by crackajack

I already use a dagger(?) for the wolves and a (rather long range) spear (?) for the two guarding knights outside. Slightly better/ faster than with the original Halberd, which is already broken or whatever. But the character is still totally exhausted faster than my real me would be.

Since you already brought up Bayonetta I think you might have a bit different expectations to combat than Demon's Souls is ready to deliver. Combat in DS is relatively slow, compared to let's say God of War, where you mash the same button until everything falls over. In DS you can't mash the attack button 20 times in order to win. Every attack leaves you open for a counterattack. I don't know how much actual sword combat you do or did. I only did some Kendo and can safely say that I can't whirl a sword around with one hand for an extended period of time. I doubt it would look any better for an axe or hammer, which is not as nicely balanced. Now considering heavy armor I really doubt that I'd be able to swing significantly faster than my character in DS did. A complaint I do have about the stamina system in DS is that I don't get why you can't regenerate stamina while having the shield up. I guess balancing but I find that a bit odd.

Quote:

Originally Posted by crackajack

Is my demon slayer character a demon slayer or did they through a fat lazy bum into the world?

Well, I'd say your character is a rather average soldier at the beginning. Not the hero that sets the world on fire, for that you have to slay some demons He's for sure no Kratos.

Quote:

Originally Posted by crackajack

The general rule of RPGs is normally to play a role. A dude with armor equipped, and not some leather nothing, is normally acting like a tank on the front line?!?

Well, unlike a character in leather armor you can take quite a beating in heavy armor. But as in reality armor doesn't make you invincible. Especially not if some 10 meter tall demon stomps on you. I find it funny how anyone could see the tower knight stomping on a character and think "some armor should protect me from that".

Quote:

Originally Posted by crackajack

A good game allows different playstyles. When i choose a knight it should be possible to act like a knight, not shift to archer, thief, magician all the time.
Morrowind allowed a nonsense mischmasch character. So here its the same?

Who says a knight is not allowed to use a bow if necessary? Who says a magician is not allowed to swing a sword? Of course a knight is not as efficient with the bow as a hunter is and a magician will more likely die in close combat than anything else. But I find the classless structure of the game quite refreshing. I hate RPG where you are forced into some pre-defined archetype.

DS allows different playstyles. You can beat pretty much every boss in melee, with ranged weapons or as magic user. I beat almost all in close combat. Only the dragons and one other boss were taken care of with the bow since it was much easier this way.

If you say this variety of playstyles is not enough I could argue Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a bad game, since it doesn't allow me to complete it without jumping and I prefer a jump-free playstyle

Quote:

Originally Posted by crackajack

I'm not even a fan of RPGs but it seems like as soon as great customization is available it is not only possible but necessary that the actually chosen role has to be blurred to an unrecognizable condition.

I disagree. As I said I played a knight and most of the game was beaten in the armor I got from the start, armed with longsword and shield. I added some neat tricks to my arsenal later on, like enchanting my weapon or a spell to reduce incoming damage. But that didn't take away from the role of a knight. If anything these spells just enforced the playstyle going in there upclose and personal with sword and shield.